Current Population Survey, December 2004: Food Security Supplement (ICPSR 4369)

Alternate Title: CPS, December 2004

Principal Investigator(s):United States Department of Commerce. Bureau of
the Census; United States Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics; United States Department of Agriculture. Economic Research Service

Summary:

This data collection is comprised of responses from two sets of survey questionnaires, the basic Current Population Survey (CPS) and a survey on the topic of food security in the United States, which was administered as a supplement to the December 2004 CPS questionnaire. The CPS Food Security supplement was sponsored and conducted by the United States Census Bureau for the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).The CPS, administered monthly, is a l... (more info)

This data collection is comprised of responses from two sets of survey questionnaires, the basic Current Population Survey (CPS) and a survey on the topic of food security in the United States, which was administered as a supplement to the December 2004 CPS questionnaire. The CPS Food Security supplement was sponsored and conducted by the United States Census Bureau for the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The CPS, administered monthly, is a labor force survey providing current estimates of the economic status and activities of the population of the United States. Specifically, the CPS provides estimates of total employment (both farm and nonfarm), nonfarm self-employed persons, domestics, and unpaid helpers in nonfarm family enterprises, wage and salaried employees, and estimates of total
unemployment. Data from the CPS are provided for the week prior to the
survey.

The supplement was intended to research the full range of severity of food insecurity as experienced in United States households. The food security questions were asked of all interviewed households, as appropriate. Respondents were queried on how much the household spent for food, their use of federal and community food assistance programs, whether they were able to afford enough food,
food sufficiency, and ways of coping with not having enough food.

Study Description

Citation

United States Department of Commerce. Bureau of
the Census, United States Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and United States Department of Agriculture. Economic Research Service. Current Population Survey, December 2004: Food Security Supplement. ICPSR04369-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2011-09-07. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04369.v2

Unit of Observation:
For the basic CPS survey questions, the unit of observation was individuals within housing units, and for the Food Security supplement households were the unit of observation.

Universe:
The basic CPS universe is comprised of all persons in the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States living in households. The December 2004 supplement universe represented the full CPS sample comprised of all interviewed CPS households.

The Food Security supplement items were used by the supplement sponsor to produce a scaled measure of food insecurity. Responses to individual items in the supplement may not be meaningful measures of food insecurity. Measures that combine information from multiple items (HRFS12M1 and following) are generally considered to be more reliable measures of food security and food insecurity.

Users are strongly encouraged to refer to the User Guide (produced by the Principal Investigators), which contains not only information about the basic CPS survey, but also detailed technical documentation specific to the Food Security Supplement. In particular, Attachment 8 of the User Guide contains the Food Security supplement questionnaire, and Attachment 17 contains user notes regarding the Food Security supplement.

The universe statements for each variable are defined in either the basic or supplement record layout, which are located in Attachment 6 and 7, respectively, of the User Guide.

ICPSR removed all FILLER and PADDING variables from the data. As a result, the column locations in any ICPSR-released data product (e.g., codebook and setup files) will have column locations that are not consistent with locations described in the User Guide.

Methodology

Sample:
The CPS uses a multistage probability sample based on results of the decennial census, with coverage in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The Food Security supplement variables can be categorized by five major sections:

Food Spending (HES1A-HES8).

Minimum Food Spending Needed (HES8B-HES8D).

Food Assistance Program Participation (HES9-HESP9).

Food Sufficiency and Food Security (HESS1-HESSHM5). This section includes the 18 food security questions that are used to calculate the 12-month Food Security Scales as well as follow-up questions that are used to calculate the 30-day food security scales.

Presence of Common Scales:
Detailed information regarding the scales is located in Attachment 17 of the User Guide.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2006-01-31

Version History:

2011-09-07 The ASCII data for this collection have been completely replaced. The data collection has been updated to include SAS, SPSS, and Stata setup files for use with the new data. Also included in the update are a corresponding SAS transport (CPORT) file, SPSS system file, Stata system file, and a tab-delimited version of the new ASCII data.